Because if we're going to try and stop the misuse of our favorite comics and their protagonists by the companies that write and publish them, we've got to see what both the printed and online comics news is doing wrong. This blog focuses on both the good and the bad, the newspaper media and the online websites. Unabashedly. Unapologetically. Scanning the media for what's being done right and what's being done wrong.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Mike Miller thrown out of Grand Rapids comicon to the approval of anti-Comicsgate moonbats

It's very disturbing to find out that artist Mike S. Miller, now working on a crowdfunded book called Lonestar, was banished from the Grand Rapids comicon because the manager hated his Christianity-influenced beliefs:

Mike S. Miller took to YouTube to report that the Grand Rapids Comic-Con cancelled their contract with Miller.

Miller notes, “Even though they invited me, signed a contract for me to go there, were going to pay me an appearance fee…They apparently decided I was a xenophobe. Xenophobe is the word used because of our friend the Nigerian prince.”

Miller also references cosplayer and Twitter user Renfamous calling her Notfamous believing she is behind Grand Rapids canceling Miller’s contract, “Apparently it’s from Notfamous on her little tirade to make sure none of us can make a living in our chosen profession.” Miller explains his reasoning, “Someone said they did a Twitter search of me, my name, and Grand Rapids Comic-Con, and the only connection was that blue-haired bimbo, who shall go unnamed on my channel.”

Before we get to more about the unpleasant sounding "cosplayer" he refers to, let's take a look at the letter he got, because there's some very ambiguous statements here that give me the feeling the manager's accusations are just made up, manufactured outrage:

On the podcast: “Marvel: The People Are Revolting” published by you on Youtube on August 29 you interviewed a Nigerion national as VKTR on Twitter about the Comicsgate issue. I found several of the remarks made in regards to VKTR after he left the podcast to be quite disturbing:

A couple comments were made by you in regards to him being a Nigerian prince and the money scandals in that country, which I found to be stereotyping and incredibly inappropriate as you had zero evidence of his involvement in those crimes; and

The final comment that “he probably doesn’t know who his father is” was downright unprofessional, a blatant disrespect to his national heritage, and a stereotype based on his skin color. I also found the excuse that you continually posted on Twitter that U.S. Democratic policies created single parenthood in African-American community in this country to be a cop out and completely irrelevant, considering that he is not a citizen of this country.

We have also noticed several comments over the last couple months directed at women that I found to downright rude. Since our leadership staff is 65% women and our ownership is 50% women, I feel that these kinds of comments have no place in an event that gears specifically towards families and has a high female demographic.

As for whatever Miller supposedly said about women, what if they happened to allude according to color of character arguments against some of the worst left-wing feminists and SJWs around, like Gail Simone? If that's the case, and he was simply panning their poor viewpoints, then the comicon's manager clearly pretended to be offended, and should be ashamed of himself.

It's important to note that Miller's of Asian background, and this basically confirms these socialists can't stand having a conservative-leaning POC around. Now about that weirdo called "Renfamous", here's what she (he?) told Bounding Into Comics when asked about whether leftists who made inciteful comments count:

I then asked her if she would also warn conventions about people like DC Comics artist Ramon Villalobos and CBR writer Kieran Shiach. Villalobos made a number of racist comments recently including stating he wanted to put white people in FEMA camps. CBR writer Kieran Shiach has led a number of campaigns against comic book creators and has also intimated he wanted to execute people via guillotine.

Renfamous answered:

“No I won’t. I’m only one person who has elected to advocate in a certain niche. I encourage anyone who feels as strongly about Villalobos and Shiach’s statements to engage their own awareness campaigns if they deem it appropriate.”

In other words, this "cosplayer" is not being altruistic, just agenda-driven against conservatives. And then, to top it off, the moonbat said:

“As a final statement I’d like to say that it’s a travesty that we’ve reached the year 2018 without a trans Spider-man arc and I encourage Marvel to remedy this ASAP.”

Okay, I get it. A transvestite who's running obsessive agendas stemming from self-centered interests. If that's what he/she cares about, it's ALL he/she is going to care about. In its own way, it's a form of religious fanaticism.

Most galling about the Miller affair is that would-be professionals like Mike Deodato have applauded the move by the convention, and as you'll see in the following screencap:

Jeff Lemire, the same guy who also accused Comicsgate of being "xenophobes" in classic limited-vocabulary Orwellian parroting, is condoning their actions too, proving he's a hypocrite when it comes to minorities. Well, in that case, Lemire's one more "pro" whose books we needn't finance, and nobody need ask for his autograph at events. Besides, I figure his writing can't be all that good if this is how he's going to treat potential customers.

Hmm, I may have read a few of Jiminez's works in the past, and can't say I really cared for them either, so I won't be missing much else at this point if that's how he wants to act.

The really corrosive effect of this behavior we're seeing from anti-Comicsgate creators is that some of them have bordered on supporting violence, and all this mess could lead to more blacklisting of conservatives at conventions. Speaking of which, somebody stated in the comments:

Yeah and I read his Portuguese tweets about comicgate.He's entitled to his views but he outright misrepresented the creators.
Here's a question that ought to trouble Joe Quesada and his DC counterpart, is Deodato, Simone and others public pronouncement to boycott any comic con that features the Comic gate creators official DC/Marvel policy? Quesada's silence as well as his DC counterpart's silence would indicate to a reasonable person that it is.
So are Marvel and DC indirectly pressuring the comic cons to effectively ban the comicgate creators?
If so, to me, we're seeing a replay- albeit a smarter one- of Mark Waid's outright threat to Anarctica Press from publishing Jawbreakers.
Or worse, a slow motion deplatforming and unpersoning of the comicgate creators. Sorta like a trial run of the chicom's social credit

The most likely counterpart to Quesada at DC would be Dan DiDio, and the above provides what to think about, having noticed Quesada's been indirectly attacking Meyer on Twitter recently. I remember back in the early 2000s, Marvel under Bill Jemas attacked the now defunct Crossgen (which later came, ironically enough, under their management briefly in 2011), presumably because ex-chairman Mark Alessi criticized Marvel's already deteriorating conduct, but in any case, what matters is that they, and surely even DC, were damaging another business, the failure of Alessi to properly pay wages in the end notwithstanding. This sounds vaguely similar, and it's never a good thing, because what if other small publishers are targeted next over thoughtcrimes, as Alterna's been? Somebody's going to have to call on the upper managements at Disney/Time Warner to investigate and ensure they're not engaging in potentially illegal practices.

I think most conventions would be better off without them; their books aren't selling particularly well now anyway. Who knows, they might even be involved in the kind of organized movements that led to artist Donald DeLay's suspension on Twitter. The industry as we know it is so out of control now, it's no wonder the twilight of mainstream US comicdom is drawing ever nearer.

The passing of Mainstream Comics is long overdue. Ever since all these left-wing weirdos took over, comics have been shitty. Featuring garbage retreads of classic characters promoting a "woke" political agenda.I'd love to see all these "Creators" having to find work in the real world. With all their talents they should have no trouble doing so, I hear Wal-Mart s hiring.

'As for whatever Miller supposedly said about women, what if they happened to allude according to color of character arguments against some of the worst left-wing feminists and SJWs around, like Gail Simone? If that's the case, and he was simply panning their poor viewpoints, then the comicon's manager clearly pretended to be offended, and should be ashamed of himself.'

On the other hand, what if they did not allude to anything like that? If that is not the case, and he was not simply panning anyone's viewpoints, then it is by no means clear that the was pretending to be offended and he has no reason to be ashamed of himself.

About me

I'm Avi Green

From Jerusalem, Israel

I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.